Anne Hathaway knew that producing a movie based on a beloved book meant getting the details exactly right.

Author: Meredith B. Kile‍Published: 5:39 PM EDT April 22, 2024Updated: 5:39 PM EDT April 22, 2024

In her new rom-com, The Idea of You, based on the popular novel of the same name by Robinne Lee, the Oscar-winning actress plays Solène, a 40-year-old divorced mother who is forced to chaperone her teen daughter’s trip to the Coachella Music Festival.

After a chance encounter with Hayes Campbell, the 24-year-old lead singer of the most popular boy band in the world — played by Red, White, and Royal Blue star Nicholas Galitzine — Solène gets wrapped up in a whirlwind romance.

For Hathaway, she knew that, as a producer of the film adaptation, The Idea of You had to win over both devoted fans of the book as well as newcomers looking to enjoy the unexpected chemistry between her and Galitzine’s characters.

“I just think Nick and I would have been friends no matter what,” she told ET’s Rachel Smith of making the film. “Sometimes in this life, you meet people for, like, five minutes and you’re like, ‘Oh, I believe I would be friends with that person.’ But you don’t really have the time.”

“Nick and I just, we got along right off the bat,” she continued. “We just started texting and then we started talking and then we were acting together and then we were talking in between… We just kind of developed a real proper friendship and that’s just really, I don’t know, special.”

However, Hathaway added that the creative team behind the adaptation made sure to include plenty of details for longtime fans of the story.

“I’ve never adapted to this before,” she reflected. “I read the script first and then I read the book. And the thing that was so wonderful was when I read the book, I just thought, ‘Oh, but I love the book just as much and they can’t mirror each other. I think it has to go through a filter in order for it to be this version of the movie.'”

“As a fan of the book, I would feel disappointed if the TAG Heuer wasn’t there,” she noted. “I would feel so left out if [the painting] ‘Unclose Me’ didn’t make me feel like it had to.”

Hathaway admitted that the production team searched for the perfect painting — which gallerist Solène sells to Hayes early in their relationship — for “so long.”

“Eventually, Sarah M. Johnson, who’s an artist that I’m familiar with, was familiar with… it wound up being that one,” she recalled. “There were all of these little details that I knew [were going] to work so great as a movie — in order to make it The Idea of You, we had to bring in what fans love about the book… I wanted to do right by them. They love this thing and I take their love very seriously.”

Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine in ‘The Idea of You.’

Prime Video

As for stepping into her character, Hathaway noted that it was a new challenge to take on “this mom, as someone who’s laying into her own desires and, for a period in her life, putting herself first.”

But thanks to director Michael Showalter and behind-the-scenes artists that she’s worked with before — including WeCrashed production designer Amy Williams — they were able to make creative decisions that everyone felt “passionately about.”

“I just think that Solène was somebody who, didn’t have unlimited resources. And she was a young woman who had a 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥, and she still wanted to build a life for herself,” Hathaway added, noting that it was a “practical economic real estate decision” for the character to set up her life and work in the hip Los Angeles neighborhood of Silverlake.

“We crafted an entire backstory and life for her, and how grateful she was to have made such a such a good call that has aged for 20 years,” she shared.

“I love the idea of believing in a future. And I think it’s become harder to do that these days,” the actress added. “It’s scary to do, certainly, but I think that there is sometimes great joy to be found in it. Especially that little thing called hope.”

The Idea of You premieres May 2 on Prime Video.